It Goes by in a Flash
by ForASecondThereWe'dWon
Summary: Peter's had tons of time to tell MJ that he likes her as more than a friend, but somehow, those days have all slipped past and he hasn't confessed a thing. Tonight is Flash's end-of-the-school-year party, and Peter's last chance before everyone scatters for the summer. He just has to find her... unless she finds him first.


**Author's Note:**

Based on the Tumblr prompts:** 12\. "You're a genius with facts, but you're really stupid with people"** and **31\. "I'm yours, in every way you'll have me."**

* * *

Peter was avoiding the host, even though he could practically hear May's voice telling him what bad etiquette that was. He also hadn't brought anything with him; his fingers twisted in the empty pockets of his hoodie as he made his way around the side of the house.

Flash's backyard was large, fenced, and meticulously landscaped. With his enhanced vision, Peter could pick out every spot where the obscenely-perfect grass had been folded under the drunken tread of one of his classmates. Most people were inside and both the warm yellow light and their rowdy voices echoed out into the evening. He was hoping she'd be out here. It seemed to him like the quiet(er) space would lure her, the way she unintentionally lured him.

"You're a genius with facts," MJ said from behind him, "but you're really stupid with people."

Peter had heard her approaching, shoes rustling the lawn. His heart sped up when her voice confirmed it was her. He turned and frowned.

"Are you drinking?" he asked, pointing to the beer bottle dangling from her loose, unconcerned fingers.

MJ looked at it too, then snorted.

"No. Our school has a real problem with rebelling through intoxication, have you noticed that?"

He shrugged.

"Wild bunch of nerds. Kind of unoriginal." She rolled her eyes while Peter gave her a half-smile. "I took a case of beer into the bathroom and dumped it, then refilled the bottles with iced tea." MJ took a swig and Peter felt something inside him surge as she pulled her mouth from the lip of the bottle with a _pop_. "Tastes like shit."

She stared at him for a minute, the side of her face cast in the sunny glow from the nearest window. Peter remembered she'd said something to him before being distracted by her plan to assist with their classmates' sobriety.

"I'm stupid with people?" he fumbled out as she watched him. "I'm not― am I?" Her steady brown eyes made Peter immediately second-guess himself.

MJ gave him a sad smile.

"Some might go so far as to say 'moronic.'"

"Wha― How― Why do you say that?" He crossed his arms defensively, pulling the sleeves of his sweater around his fingers.

This wasn't the conversation he'd been wanting to have with her, not the one he'd put off until the last possible moment. Classes had ended and if he couldn't spit it out at Flash's end-of-the-year summer party, he might not get another chance until school started again in September.

"People like me," Peter added, hearing his words try to curl up into a question.

"I didn't call you unlikeable, I called you stupid." She sighed and the exhalation could've been fogging up his brain, because he didn't get it. Didn't get what she meant, why she was saying this…

"You have to be dense," MJ said under her breath. The tone was near pleading and it caught his attention right away. "Or just not interested," she added, glancing away from him.

Did she mean… _interested_ interested? Like, interested in her? Did she know he had a crush on her? Was she trying to insult him so he'd knock it off and make himself lovesick over somebody else?

"Not interested in what?" Peter asked. He had to at least check.

Her eyebrows lifted as she frowned, then nodded in acceptance.

"Dense it is," MJ determined and swung around, heading back towards the front of the house.

"Whoa, whoa, no!" He darted around in front of her and held out his arms to make her stop. They'd stepped into a dark patch between the windows and the light had shifted off her face. "I might not be total sure what you're implying―_though I definitely know what I hope you're implying_," Peter mumbled before raising his voice again. "―but I'm interested."

She snorted.

"You're interested? You don't know what I'm talking about and you're interested?"

"It's about you," Peter reminded her. "So… I'm interested."

Some of the urgency left him and he lowered his arms after realizing they were still blocking her path. He huffed out a breath.

"Maybe I'm being stupid right _now_," Peter went on before he could shut himself up, "but I've been wanting to talk to you and… and… that's the whole reason I came."

His eyes were wide and vulnerable as he confessed. MJ looked at him, head angled in scrutiny.

"I thought you and Ned just liked coming to these things because you buy into the idea that being invited to parties equates to social currency." She drank from her polluted iced tea, eyeing him carefully.

"Ned's not even here," Peter told her. "He couldn't come."

She appeared genuinely surprised.

"So you're here for me?"

He nodded, then winced at the sound of something smashing inside the house. Neither of them reacted beyond that. Their shadowy spot felt private and valuable and Peter wasn't ready to leave it. Someone else could help clear up the mess. He'd arrived at this party as Peter and he was going to continue to be Peter. No Spidey suit tonight. No getting sidetracked, no using tricks or name-dropping to try to impress her. With MJ, he just wanted to be himself.

"I've really screwed this up," he said, smoothing his hair down at the back. "I could've said something to you for _months_, figured out a way to spend more time with you every day."

_Don't look at her now_, he thought. Best case scenario, he'd stumble over his words. Worst case, he'd abandon the whole attempt.

"I just wanna be around you," Peter blurted out. "And now it's summer and I don't know how I can do that." He gestured desperately as she stood there, but couldn't raise his eyes any higher than her knees. "I mean, if you have a summer job, I wanna work there with you. If you get up every morning to go for a jog, I wanna jog next to you. If… if you…" Peter gave up and let his hands flop against his legs. "I'm yours, in every way you'll have me."

"You want to be mine?"

Slowly, he lifted his eyes to MJ's face.

"For _months_," he fervently repeated. He sighed heavily. "I want… I just want…"

"Stop before you hurt yourself, Parker," she suggested with a smirk that sweetened the sentiment.

MJ took a step towards him, letting her beer bottle thud to the grass and tip over, draining into a flawless flowerbed. She gripped his forearms―he didn't know which of them was keeping the other on their feet―and brought her face close to his.

_Oh my god_, he thought, eyelids lowering. _She likes me back_.

A blinding light flicked on above them, as abrupt and aggressive as a police helicopter's spotlight. Then it flicked off again. On. Off. On, off. Peter and MJ squinted to see Flash's face at the nearest window. He had to be shining a security light on them, some kind of burglar-deterring motion detector, its power corrupted in Flash's hands. It was easier to hear his laughter than to make out his expression―bright spots were blooming and wiggling like bubbles in Peter's vision.

"Awww," Flash crooned in a patronizing tone. "Are you guys gonna kiss?"

Peter's face was hot with discomfort and the sensation of his chance, his _one_ chance, with MJ slipping away from him. She'd probably take off and lie low until September. She'd―

But no. One of her hands released his arm to firmly give Flash the finger and the other hand held on tighter.

"Yeah, we are. Jealous?" MJ taunted him right back.

An amazed laugh burst out of Peter and then MJ's flipping-off hand cupped his jaw, turning his head to face her as she planted her mouth on his.

_Wow_. That's all his brain could come up with.

"Sorry my mouth tastes like beer-laced iced tea," she said softly as they pulled apart. Her nose rubbed alongside his.

Peter grinned and nudged his chin forward, brushing his lips over hers.

"I honestly couldn't care less."


End file.
